Most of the pups were able to go with their parents right away which was comforting. The warriors live close so no damage was done to their properties and most of them were healed of their injuries by the end of the day.
Lily stayed with me overnight. Her dad took a nasty bite from one of the rogues and it was taking time to heal all the torn muscle tissue. They recommended that his mate stay with him to speed up the process, but she didn’t want Lily to see her dad like that so we are having a sleepover.
Jena and Lil kept her busy playing in the back yard all day, training to be as strong as her parents. Luna Ava was even able to get the pool cleaned and heated for all the kids to swim and wear themselves out. I gave her a bath in my small pool’ bathtub and Sierra was now combing her hair while we all watched some kids show I have never heard of.
Lily has one of my t-shirts on and for the first time ever, something of mine is big on someone. She crawls onto my bed and curls up next to me under the covers. I don’t think either of us made it five minutes before we were asleep.
I woke up at my usual early time, Lily still curled into my side, everyone else gone. The side of her face that was in contact with me is sweaty and a few of her soft locks are plastered to her forehead. I brush them away before I move to use the bathroom, which is what woke me in the first place.
When I got back, Lily was sitting in the middle of my bed, tears streaming down her face, looking terrified. I ran to her immediately.
“Hey, I’m right here. Are you okay?” I whisper to her.
“The window… The window… It made some noises and you was gone.” She huffs in a big breath as I pull her into me and look out my window.
“Is anyone patrolling around the packhouse?” I have no idea what time it is or if everyone is asleep, but she’s too little to make anything up and I can’t leave her alone to go look.
As expected, all my guys responded. What I didn’t expect was for them to come bursting into my room, further scaring this child. She screams and buries her head in my neck. I hold her tight whispering that it’s okay in her ears. The boys are here to check out what she heard. While I am also giving them a look of irritation for not using their common sense.
“What’s up Tiny?”
Why are they all panting? “Lily heard something rattle the window and it scared her. I was in the bathroom. I just wanted to know if it was possibly a patrol or something.” Even though we are on the third floor and a patrol wolf would have had to climb up here to mess with the window. I’m still hopeful it can be explained.
They all move as a unit. Sam and Mateo leave out my bedroom door, Oliver comes to the side of my bed between us and the window and the twins approach the window with caution, taking in everything they can. I can tell they are linking with each other and leaving me out purposely. But, I only have eyes for Lily right now and she is trembling in my arms.
I finally got her to look up at Oliver’s back and explained that he is our very brave guard and he is here to help me keep her safe, cause it’s always better to have two warriors working together than be by yourself. Then we shifted a little so she could see the twins working around the window, checking the entire thing before opening it and looking out. I’m trying to explain what they are doing so it takes her mind off of the idea of being scared and helps her focus on what they are doing to solve the mystery.
I always found that if I could break something down logically, then it became less scary. It seems to be the same for Lily. Both the twins are hanging out of my very large window. I don’t have a balcony or any kind of ledge to step out onto, but this look is funny to Lily so we keep talking about it to make her giggle.
It doesn’t take the guys long to look around then come back in and secure my window again. Then Kota closes the thick curtains, something I have never done.
“Cam walks over and sits on my bed, opening his arms to Lily. She doesn’t even hesitate to crawl to him and let him bundle her on his lap. “I need to borrow Skylar for a couple of minutes. Can Oliver sit with you while we talk to her?” He brushes a lock of hair out of her face while she stares up at him, a little hero worship showing on her tiny face. She nods at him and he smiles one of his blinding smiles. She hugs him around the neck then turns back to me.
“Come here, let me tuck you in and I’ll be back soon.” She crawls back to the head of my bed and under the covers. I tuck her in and move to grab a sweatshirt out of my closet. It is so much cooler when I don’t have her little body radiating heat next to me.
When I come back out she has already talked Oliver into laying next to her. He’s got his head propped against the headboard, one arm tucked behind his head the other has her tucked into his side.
It’s cute to see these big, tough guys just soften with a look from a cute little girl. I don’t think any of them could ever tell her no.
She’s already back to sleep, so I follow Cam and Kota out of my room. I figured they just want to talk to me out of earshot, although I don’t know why they couldn’t do that over the mindlink, now that we are walking down the stairs. Something is off, but neither are talking so I just keep following.
We head all the way down to the first floor and into Alpha Lucas’ office. When we enter, they close the door, but I notice we aren’t alone. Alpha Lucas and Luna Ava are both here too. Now I am nervous.
“How long has your team been working together?” Cam asks moving to stand next to his dad behind the desk, Kota moves to his other side. I can’t read their faces and that makes me worried.
They didn’t leave me out of the mindlink so I could focus on Lily, they suspect me or someone on my team of something bad. It dawned on me that for the first time neither of them held my hand on the way down here.
We are not friends right now. I’m being interviewed, like a suspect. I don’t know what they found, but now I have to defend myself and my team and everything I do and say is being scrutinized. My whole posture changes, my mind shifts as if I was debriefing with Warrior Osiston after a mission.
I stand straight, assuming attention with my chin held high, hands clasped behind my back and focusing on a spot in the wall just above Alpha Lucas’ head.
